Communications

Communicating With Students

You can send a welcome message or other important announcement to your students right from your Canvas course. This ensures all students in the course receive your message. Students can view announcements directly in Canvas, the Canvas Student App, or via their Cal State LA email. 

Making announcements in Canvas

How do I add an announcement in a course?

Message an individual student instead of the whole class using Conversations.

Sending messages in Canvas

How do I send a message to a user in a course in Conversations as an instructor?

View messages received from students in your class. 

How do I reply to a message in Conversations as an instructor?

When grading, you can send students a message to remind them to submit their assignments or to come visit you during office hours to discuss their progress in the course directly from the Gradebook. 

Messaging students from the Gradebook
Screen when messaging students from the Gradebook

How do I send a message to my students from the Gradebook?

In addition to providing a grade, send students written feedback right from within SpeedGrader. 

Sending a student feedback in SpeedGrader

How do I leave feedback comments for student submissions in SpeedGrader?

announcements

You can send a welcome message or other important announcement to your students right from your Canvas course. This ensures all students in the course receive your message. Students can view announcements directly in Canvas, the Canvas Student App, or via their Cal State LA email. Students may visit the Announcements area to view all previously sent announcements. 

NOTE: Courses must be published in order for students to receive and/or view Announcements. 

Making announcements in Canvas

How do I add an announcement in a course?

The message contained within an announcement may be edited. After the announcement has been sent, it is not possible to recall or edit the copy of the message students will receive via email. The message can be edited within Canvas however. Consider sending a follow up announcement to clarify incorrect information. 

Editing an announcement in Canvas

How do I edit an announcement in a course?

Draft announcements you wish to send at future date ahead of time. Schedule the announcements to send during critical points throughout the semester. 

Delaying an announcement in Canvas

How do I delay posting an announcement until a specific date in a course?

Conversation And Chat

The Conversations tool in Canvas displays all messages sent and received within Canvas. View messages by course to see messages from a specific group of students. 

The Conversations page in Canvas

How do I use Conversations as an instructor?

Message an individual student instead of the whole class using Conversations. 

Messaging an individual student in Canvas

How do I send a message to a user in a course in Conversations as an instructor?

Send a welcome message or other important announcement to your students right from your Canvas course. This ensures all students in the course receive your message. Students can view announcements directly in Canvas, the Canvas Student App, or via their Cal State LA email. 

Sending a message to the whole class in Canvas

How do I send a message to all course users in Conversations as an instructor?

Enable Chat tool through the Settings Navigation tab before you can use it in the course.  Converse with students online in real-time via short text messages. Consider using Chat during class sessions to collect questions from students or solicit responses from shy students. Students can use for live text discussions regarding course content, assignments, and projects.

chat in Canvas

How do I use Chat as an Instructor?

Calendar

The calendar provides a great place to view your course due dates, timelines, and to get organized. This is created automatically and is easy to use.

The Canvas Calendar

How do I use the Calendar as an instructor?

You can manually create an event on your calendar. This can be used for special class events that are not related to assignments or quizzes.

Adding an event in the Calendar

How do I add an event to a course calendar?

If you need to update an event with new information follow these steps.

Edit event option on the Calendar

How do I edit an event or assignment in the Calendar?

Scheduler allows you to create time slots in which to meet with students.

Adding an event for an appointment group in the Calendar
Prompt for making an appointment group in the Calendar

How do I add a Scheduler appointment group in the Scheduler page?

Shift assignment due dates by using Calendar. Simply drag and drop an assignment to a new day on the course calendar. 

Rescheduling an assignment in the Calendar

How do I edit an event or assignment in the Calendar?

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